Chapter 8: The Apostasy of the Church and Rome's Defection

The apostasy of the Christian church — Causes of the permanence of the evangelical church — The defection of particular churches — Predictions of this — The apostasy of the Roman church — Defection from the first theological principle of founding the church.

I. That our Lord Jesus Christ established His church most wisely, as was fitting for Him who is the way, the life, and the truth, is acknowledged by all, and we have demonstrated it in brief. That this church would endure until the end of the age, He Himself promised, and the reason of the kingdom — which was given to Him by the Father — demands it. For since nothing was ever to be added to the faith once delivered to the saints through the Son of God, and since the whole state of the church depends on revealed theology, it is plainly impossible that any innovation of the kind we reviewed above should occur in it, or that — since the church is itself the visible kingdom of Christ — it should entirely vanish. But since the evangelical church is catholic, and is bound to no place, seat, family, or nation, it is not necessary that this or that assembly, gathered and called in this or that place, should endure forever. For it abundantly suffices for the preservation of the catholic church on earth that true worshippers of God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit have always existed somewhere. But that every assembly which is called a particular church from some particular place where it assembles can fail with the passage of time, Scripture teaches; and that particular churches have in fact failed, events confirm. For the Holy Spirit testifies that some churches, within a few years after their first calling, fell away from faith, love, and purity to such a degree that, unless they repented most swiftly, Christ declared He would utterly forsake them (Revelation 2:1–4, 16–20).

The same Spirit also foretold that a certain general defection of those professing the name of Christ from His yoke and from the rule of evangelical theology — a defection which, while some of the apostles were still living, had already put down certain roots — was yet to come;

the Spirit (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 7, 8). The origin, progress —

Its most dreadful effects and outcome John sets forth at length in the Apocalypse. Although most other churches, if not all everywhere throughout the whole world, were implicated in the fellowship of this crime, yet that great throng of hypocrites and idolaters which, spread throughout various nations, loves to be called the Roman church, so utterly surpassed all others in wickedness and gathered all the predictions upon itself alone, that it alone is at last worthy to be adduced as the example of total defection from the rule of evangelical theology. Now since very many learned men have devoted themselves to investigating the origin, progress, and various stages of this defection, the guilt and charge of which the Roman church took upon itself, and since to their faithfulness and diligence there remains scarcely anything that could be added, it will suffice for me to expose in brief the principles and sources of this entire execrable apostasy, from which all the particular monsters of errors and superstitions — of which it consists — gradually flowed. And indeed I will do this all the more willingly because I seem to see that very many churches, freed by God's grace from the guilt and stain of this defection in which they were entangled for several centuries, are scarcely yet cautious and vigilant enough lest they fall again into the causes, occasions, and sources of this most foul apostasy. Therefore the same path we have traveled before must be traveled again here. We have shown that the apostasy of the churches of all ages consisted in the neglect and abandonment of those theological principles which were peculiar and proper to that expansion of theology upon which their constitution rested. We also set forth in the previous chapter what those heads of evangelical theology were which our Lord Jesus Christ prescribed for building the church. The forgetting, neglect, and contempt of these gave rise and progress to the defection of churches in former times — would that they were not still doing so. We will teach this in order. II. The constitution of the church — namely, that it ought to consist of the regenerate and of those who profess an unblameable faith — occupies the place of the first foundation in this our theology. From the neglect of this principle, "the first taint of evil," at least that which carried with it the momentum of defection, clung to the churches. For when on the one hand it seemed good to those who presided over the churches of Christ by name that very many should be admitted into them, and on the other hand secular enticements were not lacking to attract many who had almost no sense of spiritual and heavenly things to take up the profession of the Christian name — with this solemn institution of Christ despised — profane, superstitious, carnal, proud, greedy, and licentious men poured into them in crowds. Let Augustine be our witness, in his book On Catechizing the Uninstructed, ch. i: "There are," he says, "those who wish to be Christians either to earn favor from men from whom they expect temporal benefits, or because they do not want to offend those whom they fear; the church bears them for a time."

III. From this, moreover, the doctrine of the church concerning faith in particular and regeneration was gradually corrupted, the splendor and glory of holiness was lost, separation from the world was neglected, the most superstitious observances were introduced for the use of the Christian people, and discipline was by degrees perverted into the likeness of a certain secular jurisdiction. For after the crowd of hypocrites and of others who had not been regenerate had, by their multitude, as it were overwhelmed the church, it pleased — or at least suited — the teachers of the church to transform the spiritual doctrine of the gospel, which should have been accommodated to the state and condition of those of whom the church consisted, into a certain philosophical wisdom. From there faith became a right opinion or persuasion concerning God; regeneration became the external rite of baptism; and the glory of holiness, in those assemblies of which the greater part either bitterly opposed it or at least had a mind sufficiently alienated from it, could by no arts, by no pretense of disguise, be preserved. But when almost the whole world, led by various reasons, had taken up the profession of the Christian religion and had foully defiled almost all the institutions of Christ — how could separation from it be instituted without the suspicion of schism from the church itself? Furthermore, we have shown that the discipline instituted by Christ was plainly spiritual. In order for it to obtain its force and efficacy over men, it is required that those very persons toward whom it is to be exercised should likewise be spiritual. When, therefore, hypocrites and carnal men destitute of the Spirit had taken possession of the churches, among whom that most gentle and spiritual discipline of Jesus Christ could by no means attain its proposed end — with it despised and neglected and only its shadow retained — a secular government of this sort crept into the churches, by which these hypocrites, or wicked and villainous men, might be restrained to some degree. Moreover, from that impure crowd which, through contempt of this principle, overwhelmed the churches, very many were most deeply imbued with Jewish and pagan superstitions, through whom at length almost the whole of Hellenism, interpolated with certain Jewish observances, was introduced into the church. For from this source sprang the worship of angels, of deceased men, and of images; purgatory; virgin nuns; priests; the very sacrifice of the mass; the consecration of temples; the observance of festivals — to say nothing of garlands offered to the gods, which the ancients also called the Saturnine lighting of lamps on altars, torches carried in the Februa (in the earlier sacred rites of the greater gods, and then carried at the festival of the Virgin), the Hilaria celebrated to the Mother of the Gods at the beginning of spring, and innumerable other things — as sprouts of ancient superstition that budded in the Christian religion. After enumerating some of these, Baronius adds in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology, Feb. 2: "The same thing happened in many other institutions of the Gentiles, so that the use of their superstition, having been expiated by sacred rites and rendered most holy, was laudably introduced into the church of God." And so that most learned man openly confesses that pagan superstition was admitted into the church; although the Belgian censors in their expurgatory index order the deletion of those words of Polydore Vergil from Book 5 of On the Invention of Things, ch. i.: "In this matter someone bashfully scrupulous might perhaps say that he plainly does not know whether they are imitating the religion or rather the superstition of the ancients" — with which words he reaches the same conclusion as Baronius —

established. But with the passage of time, not without a foul defilement of the sacred institutions of Christ, the heads of the churches admitted into them the entire rabble of the nations. Let the admission to the baptismal water by the monk Augustine of the English be an example, which Camden relates from an ancient fragment of his statutes in his Britannia: "Augustine, on a single day of the Lord's nativity — which is perpetually celebrated as a day of universal glory for the English — regenerated by life-giving baptism more than ten thousand men, besides an innumerable multitude of women and children. But what supply of priests or of other sacred orders sufficed to cleanse so great a people? And so, having blessed the English river called Swale" (a river in the County of York) "the supreme pontiff commands heralds and masters to enter in pairs with confidence, and to baptize one another in turn in the name of the triune Deity. And so all were regenerated — by no lesser miracle than that by which the people of Israel had once passed through the divided sea and likewise through the Jordan turned back — to the other bank." Bede attributes these things to Paulinus.

IV. Whoever he was, no one can doubt that he gave a notable specimen of defection from the principles of evangelical theology. Now from this impious mixture — which was the source and origin of the ecclesiastical defection that occurred first after the entrance of sin (Genesis 6:1, 2, 4), and which also, after God had most gravely warned the Israelite people in several places to guard themselves against it (Exodus 22:32, 34:12–14; Deuteronomy 7:2–5), was also the beginning of apostasy for them (Judges 2:1–8) — the Christian church contracted its first and almost universal taint and corruption.

V. Second. The second peculiar principle of evangelical theology, which concerns the institution of the new church, establishes its catholicity. In defection from the rule of this principle, according to its own degree, the fatal apostasy took its stand. For when most of the ancient Christians either misunderstood this principle perversely or foully neglected it, I know not what monsters of opinion were born from it. The fiction of apostolic sees inflicted the first wound upon it. For after it suited some that this or that church, assembled in some celebrated city, should be preferred above other churches, little rationalizations were immediately devised — of which the holy Scriptures are profoundly silent — assigning I know not what secular privileges to this or that place. But all those arguments fought directly against the catholicity of the evangelical church. For although all the apostles had received a command from Christ to proclaim the gospel to all nations to the extent that lay within them — which they also fulfilled to the best of their ability, resolutely remaining nowhere for long — so that Paul alone, with his course not yet completed, "had proclaimed the gospel from Jerusalem and the surrounding regions as far as Illyricum" (Romans 15:19) — yet almost immediately after their death, the rumor spread that they had fixed their seats here and there. And so Peter was said to have had his seat in one place, and John or James his throne in another. From that most false rumor, those places began to be held in esteem and to be considered as furnished with I know not what privileges above all others. After various disputes, resting upon these shameful lies, and contentions among the heads of churches wantonly seeking preeminence and primacy among brothers — contrary to the express command of the Lord Jesus — allowing worldly pride and Satanic ambition into the church, there at last arose the Roman Papacy, which utterly subverted the catholicity of the church. For from that time, one city — indeed, one man — arrogated to itself both the name and the entire dignity of the church; and — which is the height of madness — the flatterers of that one man sold that particular church, over which the pope presides in a manner altogether secular, in place of the catholic church. This assertion denies and overthrows the nature of the catholic church. And this was the second cause of this monstrous apostasy, with the guilt of which almost the entire Christian world bound itself.

VI. Third. Christ appointed particular assemblies of the faithful who voluntarily gather into them as the seat for the visible exercise of His solemn worship. But the apostates overthrew the nature not only of the catholic but also of particular churches. For the catholic church was confined within limits and boundaries not at all divinely prescribed to it; and particular churches they extended to such a degree that they were by no means fitted for the performance of those offices for which they were appointed by Christ. For when the profession of the Christian name had most often and with undue haste taken possession of entire cities, regions, and nations, the church of that place or nation succeeded to the form of the political union and constitution which each of them had. One empire, one kingdom, one commonwealth everywhere migrated into one church. From this there also necessarily followed a church arrangement of such a kind as had previously obtained in the political sphere. Let the Roman church be an example: which, having been a particular church but wishing to be catholic, and exceeding the character and nature of the particular while not attaining that of the catholic, lost the entire nature of the church, so as to be neither particular nor catholic. That church, I say, after it had transgressed the limits prescribed to it by Christ and had determined that all subjects of the Roman empire everywhere who had embraced the gospel belonged to itself, its own care, and its government — since it was, of course, the Roman church — gradually transformed into the image of the empire itself and henceforth had nothing in common with the institution of Christ. That the same thing happened among the particular nations is well known.

VII. Fourth. Evangelical theology teaches in the next place that the glory of religious worship celebrated in the churches is internal and spiritual. It is the common presumption of all men that there is beauty and glory in divine worship. Therefore no one can be pleased with an observance of religious worship in which he cannot perceive glory or splendor. But no one perceives the spiritual glory of spiritual worship unless he himself is likewise spiritual. After, therefore, the crowd of the unregenerate had crept everywhere into the church — which is the seat of evangelical worship — and could not perceive its spiritual glory nor be filled with its sweetness, it resolved to take upon itself the task of devising splendid ceremonies of such a kind as would render the worship to which it devoted itself neat and glorious.

VIII. For although the evangelical institutions possess an inexpressible beauty, a surpassing glory, and a splendor far excelling every external splendor — for those who, in the observance of them, obtain the sweetest communion with God the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit — yet to all those who, being carnal, savor only external things, they seem to have no glory or splendor whatever. Hence hypocrites, poured out into all manner of superstition in order to supply the defect in worship — which has its only place in their minds — under the specious pretext of beauty, adornment, order, and glory, strove without end or measure to devise new rites and new ceremonies; until not only was the entire worship of the church converted into a vain, superstitious, theatrical medley of carnal rites, but it ended in wicked idolatry. Evangelical discipline owed its ruin to the same vice. For since hypocrites neither perceived its spiritual power nor cared for it, nor could understand how it could exert any efficacy upon those like themselves, they determined that a plainly secular power, exercised by carnal means, should be introduced in its place. Hence brotherly exhortations, admonitions, private rebukes, and those applied by the whole church — with the utmost gentleness, love, and peace in the Holy Spirit — were transformed into I know not what jurisdictions, courts, citations, fines, lawsuits, tumults, uproars — all most fully laden with tyranny and ambition — until nothing sincere, holy, spiritual, brotherly, or evangelical was left in the entire ecclesiastical discipline. IX. Fifth. It is hardly necessary to recall the defection from the fullness of the Scriptures, with the guilt of which the ancient churches bound themselves, since the matter is sufficiently well known from the writings of many. I will speak briefly. When some had placed great weight and importance on those things of which no mention is made in the holy Scriptures, and which for that reason they could have been persuaded ought to occupy no place in the worship of God or in the churches of Christ — they immediately betook themselves to traditions, or to those things which they had heard by most uncertain rumors that their predecessors had observed. But as day by day the reverence for those things which were not instituted by Christ in the holy Scriptures grew — since they served admirably the ambition of some, their secular interests, and also the external splendor of religious worship — the Scriptures began daily to be held cheap, while traditions and some I know not what authority of the church began to be held in ever greater esteem. The ancient serpent never administered a more present poison to the church. For with the stable, fixed, infallible

458 On the Mixture of Philosophy with Theology. [Book 6. authority and rule of the word of God cast aside, those who professed the Christian name had nothing to which they might safely retreat, until they plunged headlong into the abyss of all errors, heresies, and idolatry.

X. Sixth. To all these things was added a monstrous contempt of the most Holy Spirit, whom Christ promised to His churches. Christ undertook the care of perpetuating His church to the consummation of the age. To that end He uses the written word and the presence and grace of the Holy Spirit. The word clearly reveals and sets forth all things that pertain to the faith, obedience, and all worship of the church. And in order that the faithful may rightly use that word for the calling, edification, consolation, and the entire work of the ministry of the church, the Spirit continually bestows and distributes His gifts. To that end, as we have shown, He was promised by Christ. But when those who professed the Christian name had determined to embrace and follow in the worship of God either their own inventions or the traditions of the ancestors, in place of the institutions of Christ, they gradually came to regard the Spirit Himself and Christ's promise concerning His mission as nothing. For when other means of perpetuating the church — using unwritten worship through the successive flow of ministerial power, secular learning, and secular doctrine — had been devised, all authority of the Holy Spirit and expectation of Him immediately fell into contempt. And with the word of God despised, the Spirit of Christ neglected, and unwritten worship introduced — for the administration of which no gifts or grace of the Spirit were needed — the apostasy had no further to go.

XI. To all these may be added the mixture of evangelical doctrine with secular philosophy — which, since I fear we may still be entangled in its thorns and thickets, I have judged must be examined in a special digression.

A DIGRESSION ON THE MIXTURE OF PHILOSOPHY WITH THEOLOGY.

I. The Apostle Paul, in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians, most gravely warns the faithful to beware lest anyone should spoil them through philosophy. Nearly all interpreters hold that the apostle in that passage is censuring not the use of philosophy but its abuse. Yet whether the mixture of philosophy with theology pertains to the use of philosophy or rather to its abuse is not a matter on which all agree. For it is most certain that in every age there have been pious and learned men who, led by reverence for this apostolic ordinance, have absolutely rejected all use of philosophy in divine matters. Neither Paul nor anyone else who followed in his steps ever condemned the stirring up and advancing of those common natural notions that distinguish between good and evil, honorable and base, together with the diligent, prudent, and persistent contemplation and investigation of the works of God in creation and providence, so that by these means the minds of men might be kindled to render holy the obedience owed to God. Yet since those notions are imperfect and in large part corrupted, and the human mind stumbles miserably in the contemplation of God's works, it is necessary that whatever knowledge appears to arise from them should be tested against the Lydian stone of Holy Scripture. II. Here we consider only the primary end of all knowledge, namely, living to God; we are little concerned with the bare speculations in which the innate curiosity of the human mind exercises itself and which neither direct nor perfect the rational intellect in relation to God. We have also shown that unless those common notions concerning good and evil, and the contemplation of the works of nature and providence, occupy a different place in the knowledge of God than was assigned to them in the first state of man, all study directed toward advancing them will be entirely in vain. But those are not the things we are here treating. Philosophy as it now prevails everywhere, having been cultivated for many centuries by men who were utterly ignorant of the true God and of His will, is an altogether different matter — I mean its use in theology, that is, the mixture of its principles, notions, and hypotheses with the doctrine of the gospel; the question now raised is whether the means, methods, and terms which it devised as a handmaid to the human intellect occupied with natural objects — or rather with which certain men, sharp in their own estimation and given to speculation, employed in refining it at their own discretion — ought to be employed in the exposition, declaration, explanation, and preaching of that doctrine. What view learned men once held on this question, and what some still hold, can be shown from the testimony of a few. Clement of Alexandria, in book 1 of the Stromata, says: "There are those who think that philosophy has come into life with the greatest harm and to the ruin of men, as having originated from some evil inventor." Tertullian, in the Prescription against Heretics, says: "Heresies are supplied by philosophy; from it come the Aeons, and I know not what infinite forms, and the Trinity of man in the system of Valentinus — he had been a Platonist; from it came Marcion's better god, derived from the doctrine of tranquility — that had come from the Stoics; and when the soul is said to perish, this is taken from the Epicureans; and when the resurrection of the flesh is denied, this doctrine is drawn from the one school of all the philosophers. What then has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What has the academy to do with the church? What have heretics to do with Christians? Our institution is from the porch of Solomon; we have no need of curiosity after Jesus Christ, nor of inquiry after the gospel: when we believe, we desire to believe nothing further — for this we first believe, that there is nothing further which we ought to believe." And Justin Martyr, writing to the Greeks, says — the Greek text being badly damaged by OCR here — that the philosophers had things manifest to them from ignorance and darkness. Tertullian likewise calls the philosophers "the patriarchs of the heretics," and the same is held by Jeremias, book 2, chapter 37. III. But it is not our purpose to heap up testimonies. It will be enough to have noted that there have been great and holy men who, against the opinion and practice of the present and several past centuries, have cast their vote on this side. What I myself think in this matter I will state briefly — more briefly perhaps than so great a subject deserves, since for many reasons my discourse rushes headlong toward the end of the work.

IV. In the doctrine of the Scriptures two things are to be considered: first, the divine truth itself; and then, the manner of its exposition or explanation. We have shown above what the nature of that truth is, and that it has nothing in common with common philosophy. What remains is to weigh the manner in which that truth is conveyed and set forth in the Scriptures from the sanctuary of the divine mind. That it is varied and manifold, all who care to know the will of God as revealed in His word are well aware. It must be confessed that the rules and methods which all logical principles prescribe for the systematic teaching of any doctrine or science are scarcely observed anywhere in the Scriptures. As, therefore, the doctrine itself — which has respect to the faith and obedience of sinners — emanated from pure and unmixed revelation, proceeding from the bosom of the Father through the one Jesus Christ, so also the manner of expounding and setting it forth by the Holy Spirit, rejoicing in a certain singular divine quality, is of a kind entirely above and sufficiently unlike that which is perhaps apt and suitable for teaching merely human subjects and sciences — or at least so it seems to many. This the apostle teaches us (1 Corinthians 2:4-7): "And my word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature — a wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away — but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom" — which passage the reader will find expounded above. Let him also consult Ephesians 1:8, 9, 17–19; Colossians 1:27, 28; 2:2, 8, 9.

Since this, then, has been the character of evangelical truth and of the manner of its exposition in Holy Scripture, there appear to be, among other things, two matters sufficiently detrimental to the truth itself that have crept into it from common philosophy. For from this source there first arose the arrangement or compilation of spiritual truth — variously and in a manifold way revealed by the demonstration of the Spirit — into a systematic order and a methodical series, of the kind that prevails everywhere in schools and churches. It is from the inauspiciously begun union of common philosophy with theology, I say, that nearly all theological systems, commonplaces, and other such compilations of credible propositions owe their origin. Then, under the pretext of more precise doctrine, the articles of divine truth — that is, credible propositions collected and extracted from the Scriptures and arranged into those formulas — are expounded mingled with philosophical terms and notions. From these two sources there arises a kind of philosophical theology (which in the writings of some comes closer to theology, in those of others closer to philosophy), by which evangelical doctrine is cast down from its spiritual sublimity and loses its heavenly breadth. Such is the theology that the majority of learned men in every Christian sect teach and profess. Hence it comes about that there is no article of evangelical truth — however plain in itself, accessible to the understanding of the faithful, and spiritually effective in its power, as all the saints who cultivate communion with God in Christ experience — that, if it should be undertaken to be expounded accurately and precisely by some man learned in philosophy, is not immediately so obstructed by those terms, notions, and subtleties of reasoning — or rather, minute technicalities — that the Apostle Paul himself would strive in vain to understand or grasp it unless he had been trained in the Peripatetic school.

This subtlety of disputation among the ancient philosophers — by which it came about that no one was able to grasp the truth — was deservedly mocked long ago by Lucian in the Menippus (Necyomantia), section 4. After he had wittily attacked their most uncertain opinions, he adds — as Owen himself then renders in Latin: "And what was the most absurd of all absurdities was that, when each of them was speaking about contrary things, he produced arguments that were entirely invincible and persuasive, so that against the man who contended that hot and cold were one and the same thing I could not open my mouth at all; and yet I clearly perceived that it could never be the case that the same thing is at once hot and cold." It therefore pleases me to trace the origin and progress of this evil from somewhat farther back.

When the gospel was first preached in the world, its professors considered it their appointed business to proclaim by faith and love the virtues of Him who had called them out of darkness and translated them into His marvelous light. The celebration of the riches of divine grace by which they had been justified through the blood of Christ and delivered from the coming wrath; the admiration and contemplation of the ineffable love of Jesus the Mediator in the work of redemption; the diligent imitation of His example in all holy obedience and holiness of life; and the means by which, through the Holy Spirit poured out abundantly, they might be rendered more and more conformed to Him day by day; mutual love among themselves; zeal for works useful to men; the worship of God in spirit and truth according to the rule of the gospel; and the observance of the simplicity of the institutions of Jesus Christ — these things occupied, together with their diligence and reasoning, their religion and the cultivation of religion. To do great things and to suffer great things according to the will of Christ, led by the Spirit of God and relying on the word, was their wisdom, their life, and their religion. Nor were they ever lacking in spiritual and ineffable joys and consolations suited to the state and condition in which they found themselves. But not much time had passed from the beginning of the preaching of the gospel before ungodly men, their minds corrupted, impelled by him who rules over human minds obsessed by spiritual darkness, began in various ways to twist and pervert the heavenly truth. For since they themselves were carnal, and it was therefore inevitable that spiritual things should be foolishness to them, they endeavored to corrupt the doctrine of the gospel into a kind of worldly wisdom —

— and this is what they attempted. Hence some dreamed that Christ Himself was a shadow, a phantom, an idea, a mere man, a spiritually deified man, or even the sun; and that faith was nothing but bare knowledge or science of spiritual things, or even the vain conceit of a fanatical perfection. And all this they fabricated while knowing neither the Father nor the Son. For it is the custom of such men, since they cannot understand spiritual things spiritually, to gratify their own minds by fastening philosophical senses upon the sacred writings. That this poison began to creep gradually even while the apostles were still alive — at least some of them — the sacred page itself attests, and what survives of the histories of those times corroborates. But Satan, unable to match their authority, immediately yielded in that first assault upon the truth. When, however, the sacred company of the apostles and evangelists had been removed, he undertook again the work of corrupting evangelical truth, and not without success. What he could never accomplish through open attack he gradually obtained under the guise of defending the truth. For after the generation of men infallibly led by the Holy Spirit had ceased to exist on earth, the patronage of the truth passed into the hands of men most thoroughly equipped with all worldly wisdom. Among these were Clement, Origen, Tertullian, and countless others. Since these men, when it did not suffice to use against the enemies of truth those weapons that are not carnal — namely the word and Spirit of Christ — also chose to attack with arguments drawn from secular learning. And when they saw the heretics (whom they so called, though they were plainly philosophers who falsely bore the Christian name) dragging the express words of Holy Scripture in a direction other than was right, having devised new vocabulary in the exposition of the truth, they attempted to draw them out from their dens of stratagems and deceptions.

VIII. But as time progressed it came about that those philosophical arguments which learned men had employed in defense of the truth, together with the terms and vocabulary by which they had articulated this or that article of divine truth, came to be regarded as necessary parts of the religion of Jesus Christ. Yet no methodical confession of faith had as yet crept into the church beyond some portion of that compendium of things to be believed commonly called the Apostles' Creed. No system or body of theology, nor any catechism methodically arranged and philosophically adorned, had as yet been admitted by the faithful. Holy Scripture alone was the rule for settling controversies and for teaching the people; they were only led too far astray by the vain conceit of traditions and by an excessive expectation apart from that Spirit of instruction who was promised to believers for that end through Jesus Christ. But day by day among learned men there grew an itch for mixing philosophy — that is, worldly wisdom — with theological matters. They rushed especially headlong into this ruin after, being destitute of spiritual gifts or having insufficient confidence in them, they had nothing beyond secular learning by which to distinguish themselves among friends or overwhelm adversaries. There was no century that did not add some notable increment to this evil — truly a calamity to the ecclesiastical estate. And so, while some devised new vocabulary and forms of expression, others employed subtleties and modes of philosophical argumentation, and there were those who invented dialectical knots and chains by which to bind the adversaries of truth, and very many twisted the words with which the Holy Spirit expresses supernatural truth into an external and philosophical sense, the most holy and spiritual doctrine of Jesus Christ was in various ways corrupted by worldly wisdom and nearly lost.

IX. In no different a way did the most learned Apollinarius fall into schism and incur a severer censure from the church than he deserved — namely, by indulging too much, keen disputant that he was, in philosophical subtleties in defense of the truth; as Acacius, bishop of Berea, reports in his Epistle to Cyril of Alexandria, which is included in the acts of the Council of Ephesus. For what benefit, he says, did that distinguished disputant Apollinarius of Laodicea bring to the church, though he was in former times the universal champion who fought most vigorously for the right faith against its enemies? (Here is the first root of the evil.) Did he not, trusting too much in his own wisdom, strive to introduce through trackless and altogether impassable routes certain passages and, as it were, paths leading to the pure and simple faith in Christ — with the result that by his endeavor he accomplished only this: that he himself was reckoned by the whole catholic church among the schismatics? If the same reverent jealousy for heavenly truth which held the church in the days of Apollinarius — that most keen disputant for the true faith — had continued to flourish in subsequent centuries, the church would never have admitted so deformed, gaping, mixed, and impure a doctrine in place of evangelical theology as she afterward embraced. But I would venture to say that that defection in the profession of the Christian religion, which all the faithful mourn with groaning, owes its origin and progress to the mixture of Gentile philosophy with theology. For after philosophy occupied a place in Christian schools, the saving knowledge of God in Christ, as taught by the Holy Spirit in the mystery of the gospel, largely ceased among the majority. Above all, this fatal evil will be found to have infected everything sacred with its poison after Peripatetic philosophy — which had lain neglected for several centuries — began to find favor with students of good letters. Revived and cultivated by the Muhammadan Arabs, it invaded the Christian world with extraordinary speed. For that philosophy, especially as cultivated by the Arabs, is most apt and suitable for engendering subtle disputations and perpetuating quarrels, brawls, and controversies about any subject whatever. Relying upon it, the scholastics, openly abrogating nearly all the faith of evangelical theology, introduced in its place a philosophical and barbarous art or science. "For indeed, who of sound judgment can doubt that most genuinely scholastic notions are nothing but —"

— pure abstractions and refined distillations of Aristotelian metaphysics, given that we are dealing with supernatural matters?" says Cornelius Jansenius of Ypres, in his work on Augustine, vol. ii, col. 19. "These men," therefore, as Verulam rightly says in the New Organon, "besides having reduced theology (to the extent of their power) to a systematic order and fashioned it into the form of an art, have further brought it about that the contentious and thorny philosophy of Aristotle has been mixed with the body of religion more than is fitting." And in all things the name of Aristotle is put forward, even though they rather follow corrupt interpreters and commentators. For, to say nothing of the fact that his works first came by inheritance to a certain Neleus, a skeptic ignorant of letters, and then devolved to Appello of Teos, who sold the worm-eaten manuscripts to the dictator Sulla, and so came down to us in a most corrupted state — the Arabs, from whom these men drew their subtleties, entirely ignorant of both Greek and Latin, used translations from Latin into the Arabic language, made by unlearned and unpolished men, which from his compressed and close style of expression conveyed no sound sense in many places. Concerning all these matters Erasmus says: "I would wish those cold subtleties to be cut off entirely, and that simple and pure Christ to be restored and thoroughly implanted in human minds."

X. It is indeed true that those men made use of the books of Holy Scripture and confessed that everything contained in them is true. Yet, thoroughly saturated with that Peripatetic philosophy and seized either by an itch for disputation or by a kind of mental blindness, they produced a body of theology, as they call it, of such a kind as by no means sets forth the most holy religion of Jesus Christ. The entire difference between those men and the ancient philosophers lies in this: that among the books they used in refining their learning they also admitted the sacred Scriptures, which the old Peripatetics were ignorant of. Hence many judge that the scholastics should rather be called philosophers than theologians — as

— Beatus Rhenanus says in his Preface to Tertullian. "Since," as the same Jansenius rightly observes in vol. i, col. 184, "apart from certain Aristotelian philosophical tricks or absurdities mixed into theology from the dialectical schools, they brought forward nothing at all that was new." Of these things

— Erasmus gravely complains in his Preface to Hilary. "The creed of faith," he says, "began to reside in writings rather than in minds, and there were almost as many faiths as there were men; the articles multiplied, but sincerity diminished; contention boiled over, charity grew cold. The doctrine of Christ, which formerly knew nothing of logomachy, began to depend on the supports of philosophy. This was the first step of the church in its descent to worse things. At last the matter was reduced to sophistical contentions, and myriads of articles burst forth." And Trithemius confesses that from the time when the disputations — or rather the doubts — of the scholastics began to hold sway, sacred theology began to be defiled and contaminated by secular philosophy.

XI. But since it pleased God at the beginning of the Reformation of several European churches — attempted in the previous century — to send forth His light and truth in the preaching of evangelical simplicity, there was almost nothing in the entire apostate church that was as odious and abominable to pious and good men as that very theological learning which at that time held dominion in the schools and academies. Whether that same philosophical theology has since recovered its place in the very schools of the reformed churches and among learned men of every kind — let others be the judges of that. I will add what the most learned Johannes Drusius says on (2 Peter 2:22), on the words "A dog returns to its own vomit." "A dog returns to the vomit," he says, "who returns to what the first reformers vomited out. That is scholastic theology; those who follow it neglect the true theology, that is, the word of God; from which all Christian truth — even that which they call scholastic — is mixed with human leaven, so that it is not as pure and sincere as it ought to be. When at last will these things be reformed? For there will be no peace in the church before that. Would that those who are nourished on divine things would order their studies differently; and, casting aside these trifles, would give themselves seriously to the study of the principal languages and to the reading of the sacred text. If that were done, we would have theologians such as we ought rather to wish for than hope for; so utterly does the word of God sink in the eyes of the common people. Many do not understand what they expound to the people from the pulpit: they know only from a commentary — than which nothing is more wretched or more to be avoided by one who seeks the true food of the soul." And, concerning "A washed sow" — "It can be said of one who, having been washed (for reformation is a kind of washing), wallows again in the sophistical mire, to the great harm of youth and the church: for from where, I ask, come these dissensions, if not from that mire? He returns to the vomit who now recalls and introduces again into the academies scholastic theology; mixing that bread which proceeds from the mouth of God alone with the leaven of the philosophers. These men convert the simplicity of believing into a curiosity and subtlety of disputing; devising new questions daily, most of which are useless, formerly unknown to the prophets and apostles, which nevertheless increase the number of disputants who today fill the Christian world." So far Drusius. Let the author of the book entitled Onus Ecclesiae also be heard. "The pagans," he says, "sought to destroy the evangelical norm; therefore the devil instigates the doctrine of Christians to be propped up with pagan authorities, and the dogmas of the Gentiles to be mingled with the principles of faith, so that at last the evangelical truth might be blown away from the midst through sophistical tricks." With which Erasmus's statement agrees: "Everything promises a most happy outcome. Yet one scruple troubles my soul, lest Paganism, under the pretext of ancient literature, attempt to raise its head." But it did not turn out that way. This philosophical method of teaching spiritual things is alien to the gospel. Even the first Christians after the time of the apostles were utterly ignorant of it. Let the writings of the most ancient Christians be consulted — they will be found not to have treated theological matters in the manner of later writers. But in every kind, what is oldest is best.

466 On the Mixture of Philosophy with Theology. [Book 6.

XII. Furthermore, there is in spiritual truth — native and heavenly, shining with this light — something that seizes and compels the minds of men into admiration of it. With a certain ineffable glory and splendor it insinuates itself into the hearts of men and penetrates their consciences. It has fullness, breadth, or freedom accompanied by an unerring efficacy. In these things consists the very life and soul of true theology. But nearly all those who would use theology as the sole standard for cultivating holy communion with God in Christ complain that the sense, force, and energy of all these things are obscured, undermined, and diminished in wondrous ways when theology is compelled to proceed burdened with the chains of philosophical notions and terms, entangled in their snares. That in this manner the spiritual efficacy or supreme authority in the consciences of men, together with the heavenly and spiritual breadth that are accustomed to be the inseparable companions of evangelical truth handed down pure and undefiled, is lost — this, I say, all would readily feel and confess, were not the minds of very many occupied by insuperable prejudices. Hence, in place of spiritual wisdom, some barren and dry opinion — I know not what — is substituted; and men who are ungodly, unbelieving, carnal, worldly, and wholly estranged from all saving knowledge of God in Christ are frequently imbued with the highest acquaintance and expertise in it. We see this happen every day — namely, that the spiritual nature of evangelical matters is most grievously obscured, while learned and sharp little men expend much labor in teaching those matters accurately, methodically, and philosophically.

XIII. Furthermore: we have shown from Tertullian and others that very many errors once broke into the church from this philosophy as from a Trojan horse. Moreover, whatever the sophists still babble about many articles of faith has come forth from Peripatetic philosophy.

XIV. The very matter itself cries out that common philosophy abundantly supplies material for infinite quarrels and useless disputes. Relying on it, clever and sharp-tongued men "assail the majesty of Almighty God with calumnious litigation, dissect faith with petty circumlocutions, and, each one more wicked with his tongue than the last, they loose and bind the bonds of questions through intricate syllogisms."

These are the lines Prudentius once sang concerning the ancient philosophers in his Apotheosis, Hymn against the Unbeliever. But they mix in everywhere many things that even those who use them scarcely understand. "I would be ashamed to say I do not understand, if those who handled these matters did understand," says Melchior Canus, Loci Communes, bk. ii, ch. vii. Also most worthy of note is the very learned Vives's complaint, grounded in bk. xviii of Augustine's City of God, ch. xviii. "Theologians," he says, "teach with great consensus that it belongs to God alone to create something out of nothing. About which Thomas says much, whose arguments Scotus weakens in order to confirm his own, which Occam endeavors to undermine in order to establish his own,

and yet these too Peter of Ailly loosens — nor do they in this way merely play with a serious matter, or force heavenly things to serve their own passions and factions. What morals can be reformed, what corrupt passions calmed and removed, what can finally come of doctrine agitated and dragged about by disputes, turned upside down at the pleasure of human passions, broken by the engines of those who litigate so stubbornly?"

XV. From this source theological disputes arise and are made perpetual — disputes that could doubtless all easily be settled, if Christians, at least in profession, would submit themselves to the sole divine word for faith and direction. But while the wisdom of nearly all men who concern themselves with and agitate matters of religion is thoroughly infected by this philosophy — if it is not this very philosophy itself — controversies are made to last forever, and reconciliation among those who disagree, even on matters of the slightest importance, is rendered impossible. Hence theological libraries are full of the largest books and disputes about matters, assertions, and terms of which the Christian world had never heard anything, unless perchance they happened to occur to Aristotle. What an Iliad of evils and tumults has proceeded from there it is not the place to set forth here. XVI. Most truly and weightily in this vein Doctor Hoornbeeck wrote many things not long ago when treating the doctrine of the Trinity, in his Refutation of Socinus, bk. ii, ch. iv, sect. 8. "With what terms," he asks, "or notions, I beseech you, shall we attempt to explain fully and plainly to ourselves a matter that in its own depth is incomprehensible — with phrases or distinctions lately born in the schools? — especially since all the logical or metaphysical terms which we are accustomed to use in this matter are formed from lower things and from their consideration and comparison through the operation of our intellect, while there is no exemplar of that mystery among these things. Nor do the common terms seem sufficiently proportioned or suited to explain it; and we abstain from them all the more scrupulously because, just as new terms are found every day for new inventions or for newly devised kinds of distinctions, so we may justly doubt whether some more convenient notion of distinguishing can also be constructed here. At least to suspend judgment seems to be outside of danger. Nor do we readily believe that the ancients were the less wise here, even though they were ignorant of our recent formulas of distinctions. Moreover we also see that, once some kind of distinction is granted, sharp dispute about it immediately follows, with the main point often abandoned and to the prejudice of truth, more boldly and emptily than surely." So it is: dispute begets dispute, distinction begets distinction; and he who seems to himself to hold all of them is no wiser, in the end, than those who hold none. Jansenius of Ypres solemnly warns that from this it has come about "that the knowledge of more recent theology serves nearly all Christians for nothing, except that by learning and following the various opinions of various men suited to their own desires, they lay aside Christian simplicity and become more cunning, and more wicked than honest" — Augustine, vol. ii, col. 22.

468 ON THE MIXTURE OF PHILOSOPHY WITH THEOLOGY. [Book 6.

XVII. But I do not wish to dwell longer on these matters. Perhaps in the forbearance of God an opportunity will be given for me to treat more fully the true use and restoration of philosophy; therefore I will conclude here briefly.

XVIII. Those who have investigated the origins, occasions, and causes of the contentions and quarrels that are everywhere stirred up among professors of the Christian religion — with such great uproar, such great agitation of minds, hatreds, and exasperations, and with such great reproach to the most holy name of Jesus and scandal to the gospel — without prejudice, and indeed also without love and partisanship, have been exceedingly few:

"They are scarcely as many in number as the gates of Thebes or the mouths of the wealthy Nile." — Juv. Sat. xiii. 26. Deep-seated prejudices, which the ways of the age have produced, turn the minds of men elsewhere. Those who have attempted to compose the divisions and disputes between the parties through mutual relaxation and concession of the strictness of their opinions could long since have understood that they have wasted their labor and their oil. Some ascribe this most deadly evil to the most just judgment of God, delivering to the vanity of these contentions men full of themselves who were unwilling to submit to the simplicity and purity of the gospel — yet in such a way that they assert the men's own darkness, prejudices, corrupt affections, and lusts to be the immediate and vicious cause of all of these things. But presupposing the just judgment of God, which is merited by the sins of men, they affirm that the chief means of bringing those most dreadful errors that swarm everywhere into the church of Christ, and of making the disputes about these and other things perpetual, has been that mixture of which we are treating — namely, the mixture of Platonic and Peripatetic philosophy with the doctrine of the gospel. In the judgment of these men, until Christians striving to become wise through the "Spirit of revelation in the mystery of the gospel" return to evangelical simplicity, shaking off the dust of this Babylonian confusion, hope or expectation of liberation from that vanity of fighting and quarreling everywhere exercised will be in vain. This, they say, is what has so wickedly set the worshipers of Jesus against one another, and what is the source of all separations and schisms. Hence they say that theology has been changed into a certain thorny and perplexing art or science, which corrupt men learn just as they follow other arts, without any aid of the Holy Spirit or communication of spiritual light. And they lament that by the study of this theology the minds of students are turned away from the divinely instituted inquiry into true wisdom — through faith, prayer, assiduous meditation in the word of God, and the holy practice of evangelical obedience. They therefore hold that evangelical theology ought to be absolutely separated from all mixture with philosophy, and they affirm that to free the minds of men from the deep-seated prejudices by whose bonds they are held, and to root out utterly that worldly wisdom which constitutes a great part of that erudition by whose vain opinion the crowd of learned men so greatly prides itself, is the work of the Holy Spirit alone, who will at last accomplish this by the efficacious exertion of His power.

Chap. IX.] On the Study of Theology. 469 CHAPTER 9.

On the Study of Theology, or of the Scriptures.

I. We have set forth, in keeping with the design of our work, the nature, origin, progress, and various enlargement of theology — that is, of the doctrine concerning God, His will, and the obedience we owe Him. We have also openly explained, as is to be hoped, in accordance with the mind of the Holy Spirit, the disposition of the mind or intellect by which we rightly receive that doctrine, directing the whole man in its saving use. We have now determined in this last place to inquire briefly about the study of theology and how a person becomes an evangelical theologian. We have already shown at greater length that he alone is properly called a theologian who, while he is savingly wise in the mystery of the gospel, is also equipped with spiritual gifts to such a degree that he is able to instruct others in the knowledge of that same mystery, to the glory of God and the praise of the grace of Christ.

II. With this end in view, we see that very many fall short, since a wrongly established method can find no way out. I am not disposed here to attack or censure the commonly traveled path of studies and its method. Those who persist in them have competent authorities for their own course. We consider it to be of great benefit — and it could be of greater benefit than it commonly is — for professorships in theological schools and academies to teach that philosophical method of setting forth spiritual truth which we have described above. It does not belong to our present purpose to examine the directions, ways, and methods of studying and treating theology that many celebrated scholars have published, though they are very often mutually contradictory and obstructive. We are not all equally wise in all things. In a field of study where some would suffer harm, others profess to receive abundant progress. But I hope all will judge that whatever in any of these methods gives occasion or fuel for the darkness, quarrels, disputes, vain opinions, and prejudices in which nearly all of us who have devoted ourselves to the study of theology are entangled, ought to be rejected.

III. We have elsewhere rejected the endeavor to hew and trim spiritual truth or theology according to the Lesbian and arbitrary rules of other arts and sciences. This doctrine contains something that refuses to be confined by those bars. Theology demands of its cultivators a different freedom and light of understanding, different principles and purposes of the mind, different ends, and different affections of the heart than those which secular or philosophical arts and sciences either know or care about. Those who would be imbued with this spiritual wisdom must devote themselves to cultivating the most holy communion with God in the mystery of the gospel through Jesus Christ, and to exercising their souls toward the experience of the spiritual power and efficacy of saving truths — truths which are neither implanted in the mind by nature, nor presented to it through those things that are subject to its rational consideration and examination. The illumination of the heart, the communication of the spirit of wisdom, the revelation of the mysteries of the kingdom of Christ through that Spirit and the manifestation of them, the translation from darkness into the marvelous light of Christ, the participation in the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Christ — all of which philosophy abhors, and which have always been foolishness to its devotees — these are what bring forth and constitute our theology; they are not mere words and nothing more.

IV. Do not therefore expect, reader, that I should here compile a catalogue of books or prescribe a method of reading them; others have long since accomplished both of these things, with much judgment and with no less celebrated learning. Gisbertus Voetius especially, in his theological library — a man most learned in many disciplines, never to be sufficiently praised for his rare erudition, singular piety, and love of truth. V. But what I am working toward does not tend in that direction. I by no means sustain the office of a professor of theology, nor does the care of directing others in the plan or method of their studies lie upon me. I detest the noise of the schools and sophistry. By God's gracious arrangement, I live at home and to myself. My aim is, if by any means I may serve the households of the faithful. Therefore, the things I have to add concerning the study of theology — things that can promote the minds of pious students in the investigation of that heavenly truth whose nature we have set forth — are few. But in order that we may arrive at our destination, certain things must be premised.

VI. Let the reader therefore first observe that I understand those terms — the names of theology and theologians — here in no other way than I have shown they ought to be understood according to the principles set forth and confirmed above. They do not denote in our present discussion any particular science, nor a particular class of men equipped with it. All faithful Christians are theologians, since the saving light of the gospel has been granted to all of them. The difference that exists among them is one of degree. For the distribution of spiritual gifts among the faithful through the Holy Spirit — (1 Corinthians 12:11) — from this all difference among theologians depends. The same saving light dwells in all. They are daily transformed into it; the matter is plainly not arbitrary. He works in all as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11), from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit. But the gifts of grace variously communicated by the same Spirit produce a great distinction among these theologians. Theology, therefore, insofar as it denotes a saving intellectual habit — that is, a spiritual light renewing the mind and transforming it into the image of Christ, who is light — belongs to all and only the faithful. Those things that pertain to the increase of that light, the confirmation of those habits, and accordingly to the spiritual elevation of the understanding, and to the clear and proper perception of the saving object, and to the spiritually efficacious declaration of the truth thus known — in which all distinction among theologians consists — these are the things we are chiefly concerned to promote in the study of theology.

VII. Those free gifts of the Spirit which, superadded to the saving light, variously distinguish evangelical theologians from one another, produce a twofold effect in the minds of those endowed with them. For, first, since all adult believers already possess, by virtue of the saving light infused into them at their conversion to God (for each of them is made light in the Lord), a radical and foundational knowledge of the whole counsel of God concerning the demonstration of His glory in their obedience and salvation — inasmuch as they are capable of all spiritual things and can perceive them in a saving manner — these gifts render that knowledge more certain, more clear, more full, and more distinct, in the apprehension of the truth as revealed by God and set forth in the Holy Scriptures.

VIII. Distinct, I say, expressed, fixed, and solid knowledge of spiritual things set forth in the Scriptures depends on these gifts. Their effect also includes a sound and solid judgment, which is able to discern true things from false, and to arrange the articles of truth in that order which their natural relationship to one another requires.

IX. Second, these gifts alone make men capable of teaching; for by virtue of them we are made sufficient to instruct others in that good knowledge of Christ with which we ourselves have been imbued. Now the one who possesses these gifts — that is, the saving light that elevates and disposes the mind toward a saving perception of evangelical truth, together with those gifts of the Holy Spirit that stir up, increase, kindle that light, and distinctly implant in the mind the truth set forth in the Holy Scriptures, and moreover render him fit to impart to others that knowledge of God in Christ which he himself has graciously obtained — he is the theologian of whom we speak. The study of theology, therefore, is nothing other than the effort, directed according to the norm of the divine word, to promote the saving light and the spiritual gifts in which this heavenly wisdom consists in the mind of the theologian. This Scripture itself teaches us everywhere: 1 Corinthians 14:12; 2 Corinthians 3:5, 6, 18; 4:6; Ephesians 1:17-19; 3:7, 16-19; 4:15, 16; Colossians 1:26, 27; 2:2, 3, 7; 1 Timothy 4:12-16; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 1 Peter 4:10, 11; 2

Pet. 3:18. X. Third, we propose that the use of theology in the ministry of the gospel is chiefly to be considered. Knowledge of it alone does not in itself constitute anyone a minister of the gospel, properly so called. Beyond this, a solemn vocation through ecclesiastical election and separation is required in any theologian for the due undertaking of that office. But that one be apt and fit to discharge that office comes from theology. Although therefore the nature of theology is such that everyone who cares either for the glory of God or for his own salvation ought to devote himself to it, yet the obligation of promoting and cultivating it in a special manner falls upon those who are earnestly engaged in instructing others in the knowledge of the divine will. For if those who set their minds upon the sacred office of the ministry were to consider seriously what light in these last days and what spiritual gifts the Lord Jesus has been pleased to bestow graciously upon the Christian people — or upon the greater part of the common body of the faithful — they would without doubt resolve that it is to their own great advantage to give diligent care to the increase of spiritual gifts which they themselves hold as their possession, with all their strength and with the utmost effort of their souls. As for the arts and sciences

— they may have learned, that they may be equipped with knowledge of philosophy and languages, that they can spend whole days in wrangling and disputing: this will scarcely suffice to rescue their ministry from contempt, or even to bring it into any esteem. For these are not the matters about which there is an immediate contest with the churches. If someone who was hired by another to sow and reap were to boast that he was skilled in the art of navigation or of warfare, he could not escape being ridiculous and contemptible to his employer. Nor will it ever go better for the man who, puffed up with confidence in secular learning and scholastic quibbles, empty of spiritual gifts, a stranger to the mystery of the gospel, thrusts himself upon the Christian people in the office of teaching. There go forth daily (which is grievous) into the Lord's vineyard new orators, foolish young men, who, having scarcely greeted good literature from the threshold, nevertheless, relying on the vain conceit of frigid and worthless learning, believe they can strike rustic and unlettered people with the noise of sesquipedalian words and easily keep them in subjection. But when it comes to actually performing the work of the ministry, destitute of all true theology — that is, of saving light and spiritual gifts — they perform so miserably and comport themselves so ineptly, that to all those in whose hearts are the ways of the Lord, and who know what that eternal life is which consists in the knowledge of God and of Christ, they are immediately worthless and contemptible. Hence come the wrath, quarrels, dissensions, and schisms which our duty and our times demand be met by ministers of the gospel through the study of true theology and the practice of piety, not by force and arms. XI. These things having been premised in accordance with the design of our work, it remains for us briefly to review those things that appear necessary for making useful progress in the study of theology.

XII. First, whether it was necessary for me to make mention of the common arts and sciences — in which all learned men agree that students ought to be equipped before approaching the study of theology — or not, I was for some time in doubt. For why should I bring up here things about which no one is uncertain, things that are known to everyone? Yet reasons are not lacking for doing so, however often it has already been done: I will do so therefore. These arts are: grammar, to which I refer the knowledge of the original languages,

— logic, and rhetoric. For although someone may become wise in the mystery of the gospel without knowledge of these disciplines, that is, as they are commonly taught, yet since the mode of handing down and expounding heavenly doctrine that is observed in the Scriptures has much in common with the other sciences which these arts serve, we judge them at least useful for promoting that wisdom and for making the progress therein in that particular manner we have proposed. The other parts and ornaments of secular learning, however, we do not pass over in silence as though banishing them entirely from theological study. Let each person devote himself to them according to his own disposition and aptitude, especially to history of every kind. Writing and vocal speech are, moreover, the modes and means of communicating all rational concepts. Whatever is spoken, whatever

is written, by which any concepts of a rational mind are expressed, rests on the fundamental rules and principles of these common arts. Every proposition that falls short of them either falls short of reason itself, or pours darkness and obscurity upon reason. Indeed, these arts themselves are nothing other than certain sketches of general rules which the nature of things teaches must be employed in the communication of rational concepts through words. The things themselves, therefore — namely, the concepts of a rational mind expressed in words, by which men recount their perceptions, dispute about doubtful matters, and mutually persuade one another of what seems true — are prior to these arts. But since no mortal is able to comprehend all the ways and modes by which men express the perceptions of their minds, any more than he can conceive all the rational concepts of all men, whose diversity gives rise to differences of expression, these observations of many wise men gathered over so many centuries, which are contained in these arts, cannot but be very useful. Moreover, skill in these common sciences, or mental exercise in them, aids the mind in forming its own concepts, strengthens all the faculties, confirms the judgment of the understanding, frees the very things about which the mind and reason are occupied from ambiguity and deceptions, and sets forth and proposes their naked, clear, and distinct natures to contemplation.

XIII. It would certainly be desirable that those to whom the task of instructing the studious youth falls would apply greater care, diligence, and prudence than is commonly done in schools and academies, so that students might attain solid learning and useful skill in these arts. For it is most certain that a superficial and undigested knowledge of them — though it may suffice for the shadowy exercise ground of the schools — is very often a great prejudice to good minds, and of no benefit or utility whatever. Indeed, among students those who attain any useful skill in these common arts are as those who appear rare, swimming in a vast whirlpool.

Laziness forestalls all praiseworthy efforts in some. They are unwilling to endure the difficulties and tedium of study. For some obstinately shun all labor of mind and intellect, who nevertheless — led by some foolishness I cannot name — are not ashamed to enroll their names among candidates for learning. At last they themselves, and those who have an interest in their pursuing better things, taught too late by experience, come to understand how great an injury it was to have occupied places destined for study with such a disposition. Then, a great many, while they ought to be diligently devoting themselves to learning these arts, having set before themselves no fixed end to their labors, wander here and there in their studies through varied reading, and thus in the end make no useful progress in any branch of learning. Others, lacking the benefit of skilled instructors, wear out their time with feeble efforts, always beginning to do something, never finishing anything.

XIV. For when things that are truly useful appear surrounded with excessive difficulty and darkness, wearied by the work undertaken they give way and cast down their spirits toward those trivial and worthless things which the very large supply of futile books provides. Now the hindrance that renders the serious and praiseworthy efforts of very many fruitless and frustrated is ignorance of the nature and true end of all arts and sciences. The first inventors of these arts set before themselves the aim of contending against the curse which, on account of the first sin, lies upon the human race, and of liberating all — each and every one — from that penalty of ignorance of truth and of darkness under which we naturally labor. For since the human soul perceives itself weighed down by blindness and ignorance of all things, it strives by every means to extricate itself from those snares. But we all know that the encyclopedia of the sciences is wholly insufficient for attaining this end. Those who are ignorant of the saving light of the gospel cannot have any other general end proposed to them in the study of the arts and sciences. By means of these arts they would wish to emerge from natural darkness. And so the minds of very many, subject wretchedly to the power and dominion of innate vanity, fluctuate here and there in the search for truth. For all Christians confess that no one can attain the end they are seeking except through the saving grace of Christ. Until therefore all sciences and arts — as we desired above — are reformed according to the norm and for the use of infallible truth, it cannot but be that the study of them turns out very unhappily for very many.

XV. Second, once the plan of their studies has been thought out, let students carefully consider what that goal is — what the scope is at which they are aiming with minds and eyes. For since the end of the whole work is the rule for the search and use of means, it must always be carefully attended to, lest we perpetually wander from the way. What that end is, or what kind of end it is or ought to be, is sufficiently clear from what has been said above. There are those who are content with having turned over theological systems — by which evangelical doctrine is reduced to certain heads of topics — night and day with their hands, until, delivered over as it were into their care, they seem to themselves to have mentally conceived a kind of index of theology. To read, know, and retain in memory what the ancient fathers, what the scholastics, what the more recent theologians have thought or written concerning the matters of faith and the business of religion — this is what completes the purpose of others. Very many strive with all their might to attain philosophical expertise in some kind of theological science. But all these ends we have already banished far from the ends of theology.

XVI. To become wise and understanding in the mystery of the gospel, in the knowledge of God in Christ, in the secrets of the divine counsel and covenant, in the mysteries of spiritual worship, and in the obedience of faith — this is something toward which we tend in this study. Let this remain fixed and settled, at which the keenness of the mind aims in the choice and use of means. If wisdom is that which comes from above, from the Father of lights, if the understanding in the mystery which we are to be given through the Holy Spirit is such that this theology, into which one is to be initiated

It would undoubtedly be the greatest folly, if we wished to obtain the knowledge of it by any means other than those alone which have been prescribed by God Himself, and are further enriched by the communication of the Holy Spirit. He who, with due reverence toward God and with denial of himself and his own natural powers, relying on the help and benefit of the Spirit of Christ through faith, aims at this goal, and uses no means except in relation to that end — and in the manner befitting such means for obtaining such an end, that is, piously and reverently — his studies will, by God's favor, arrive at the outcome that was proposed. But while students waver here and there in the use of the most uncertain means, pursuing I know not what aims they have set for themselves, although they "cast gold into the fire," the result is usually a "calf." Therefore, those who would not wish to waste toil and oil in the study of theology should hold firmly to this fixed purpose: that the goal toward which they are tending, and which they are seeking with every effort, is spiritual and saving wisdom in the mystery of the gospel.

XVII. Third, we have proved above that all supernatural truth revealed by God is contained in didactic propositions in Holy Scripture. Our wisdom consists in the spiritual and saving knowledge of that truth. Therefore all will readily grant that diligent reading of the Scriptures, and assiduous meditation in them, is absolutely necessary for all candidates in theology; yet, as the outcome plainly shows, those who apply themselves to this matter with due thought and care — though they may grant it in words — will be found to be very few indeed. And the neglect of this in this study brings not merely harm but ruin to very many. Nor can it be otherwise, when men profess to aim at any goal whatever while openly neglecting the means. In the reading of Scripture they spend little effort — in a varied and sluggish manner, joined to a harmful relaxation of mind; in hearing the word and the solemn preaching of sermons, even less; in meditation, nothing at all — yet none of them doubt that they are going to become the most accomplished theologians. This is the most foolish class of men, and one that deserves to be despised. While they investigate that noble and heavenly wisdom, to which nothing in human life is equal or comparable, they regard as of no account — or place last — that one nearly indispensable means which is appointed for that end. They are wise, if indeed it is wisdom to desire what cannot

Come to pass. But perhaps they are wholly occupied in reading the writings of ancient and more recent theologians who set forth the meanings of Scripture with careful effort? Very well — we commend that diligence. But this is not the study of Scripture. It is one thing to read the Scriptures themselves with ardent desires poured out through faith in Christ, with the help of the Holy Spirit implored, so that we may imbibe the Spirit who lives in them; it is quite another to peruse the writings of other men, however learned and fragrant of heavenly truth. Let them hear Acosta the Jesuit. "He," he says, "who reads the Scriptures with purity of soul will profit more than if he had attempted to unravel their mysteries with many commentaries." He adds something almost fanatical, as it will seem to some — namely, that "he had seen many unlearned men who could scarcely understand Latin, who had drawn so much light from the Holy Scriptures that he himself was astonished, while professors with all their diligence in study had been unable to teach anything similar." It is well that he was a Jesuit and a learned man. Hear also Erasmus in the Preface to the New Testament: "These things, I say, and things of this kind" (that is, faith, love, holiness, contempt of the world according to the word of God) "if anyone, breathed upon by the Spirit of Christ, preaches, instills, exhorts to, invites, and animates others toward — he is at last a true theologian, even if he were a ditchdigger or a weaver; and if anyone also demonstrates these things by his own manner of life, he is in the end a great teacher."

XVIII. Since, however, there are certain things that deter the minds of very many from the study of the Scriptures themselves, and thus bring upon them the most immediate ruin, it will not be out of place to briefly enumerate them here.

XIX. First, therefore, the hidden unbelief of the human mind persuades very many that the Holy Scriptures, because they are obscure and entangled with difficulties, or because they contain mysteries with which human intellect would gladly have nothing to do, can scarcely be rightly and clearly understood. They do not consider it their duty to inquire diligently into that which they feel themselves unequal to comprehending. Therefore, with certain exceptions of historical passages and those which that revelation of God's mind has in common with other sciences, they scarcely advance in the study of it beyond the sound of words and the surface of the letters. The deep mysteries and the rays of heavenly wisdom that shine in Scripture terrify sluggish and earthly souls. They perhaps also consult certain texts from which they think commonplaces can be assembled, and which serve to support the opinions of one sect or another. But as for pursuing pure, bare, immediate inquiry into the mind and sense of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures — for the purpose of attaining spiritual wisdom — they are thoroughly averse to it. XX. Indeed, for reasons I know not, a large portion of students, if they do not despise the reading of the Scriptures, at least neglect it. Some are averse to the style, others to the subject matter itself. Well known are the things which Jerome recounts as having happened to himself, in the Epistle to Eustochium on the Preservation of Virginity. "After frequent watches through the night," he says, "after the tears which the recollection of past sins wrung from my inmost depths, Plautus was taken up in my hands; if at any time, returning to myself, I began to read the prophets, their uncultivated speech made me shudder; and because I did not see the light with my blind eyes, I thought the fault was not in my eyes but in the sun." It is also in everyone's mouth how the impious Politian confessed that he had a repugnance to the Scriptures on account of the barbarism of their style, as he called it. But still more impious are the things which Caspar Peucer recounts concerning him in the Epistle to Christopher Carlowitz. When Politian was asked, says Peucer, what he thought of the Psalms of David, he replied: "I see that those ancient poems are full of wisdom. In them are precepts of all the virtues, there are admonitions concerning providence, threats concerning the punishments of the wicked, and promises concerning the rewards

and protection. The ancient histories of that nation are also interwoven, both that the memory of antiquity might be handed down to posterity, and that examples of punishments and protection might be set before their eyes at the same time. I regard this wisdom highly; I consider it useful for life and morals, and the figures in their own language to be elegant; and melodies were added in former times, fitted to stir the movements of the soul. But in Pindar the same things are set forth more sweetly, and illustrated more splendidly with examples." This is Politian. So that impious little man, as though appointed arbiter between the Holy Spirit and a pagan poet, adorns David with garlands so that he might fall as a more illustrious victim to the praise of Pindar. Would that there were indeed none who hoped they could seek the doctrine of virtue better from Pindar, or at least from Plato, Plutarch, Seneca, Epictetus, Arrian, Plotinus, etc., than from the books of the Old and New Testament — which atheism we daily see God punishing with horrible blindness.

XXI. Second, they scarcely believe that the knowledge of truth which they would very much wish to be imbued with, and which the most learned writings of learned men abundantly supply, is contained in the Scriptures. The most profound notions, subtle arguments, and sharp distinctions, by which men both become learned and are delighted, they can learn from other books; the contemplation of Scripture, they say, is humble, dry, and barren. Such, indeed, is the foolishness of inept little men. For Holy Scripture is not only the rule and norm of all spiritual truth, of which we are speaking — to such a degree that nothing is true in that kind, nor ought to be admitted in place of truth, unless it is contained in Scripture — but it is also the one and only source and origin of that truth, so that no notion or mental concept concerning matters of religion has sublimity, nor do arguments have subtlety, unless they are drawn from it; as we have shown elsewhere.

XXII. Third, since Christ has promised His Spirit to lead all believers into truth through the word of God, those who do not look to Him alone according to that promise, nor flee to His help, are in truth deprived of that assistance and support without which no one has ever engaged rightly, eagerly, and fruitfully in the study of the Scriptures. Other studies indeed can be undertaken and accomplished by one's own effort. But in the Holy Scriptures there is something hidden which human intellect, however much external assistance it may call in to its aid, is unequal to perceiving in a saving manner. Therefore the Holy Spirit is promised as a helper in this work. He is received only through faith. It ought therefore to be surprising to no one if for those who neither know the Spirit nor can receive Him — because they have no faith — the free and sincere scrutiny of these Scriptures is a weariness and nearly a hatred. Those who do not know how to trust the promised Spirit, to implore His help and assistance with constant prayers, or to submit themselves to the guidance of that anointing which teaches all things, will direct the keenness of mind and the acuity of intellect to this study in vain.

XXIII. Fourth, a deep aversion to cultivating any immediate communion with God clings intimately to the souls of many. This is the fruit of indwelling sin. Where that sin reigns — which is the condition of the unregenerate —

a universal enmity against God prevails. It retains some force even in the regenerate. Now in the writings of all men the native vanity of the human mind has that by which it may amuse itself: even when theological subjects are treated, the mind is occupied with those things that are common to other sciences as well. In Holy Scripture, however, the soul has to do with God Himself. But since the mind subject to native vanity cannot bear this, it flees the study of the word itself with a certain secret aversion. XXIV. Therefore, until these and similar other things — which not only greatly hinder those who approach the study of theology, but also drive them into remarkable frustrations — are removed, it ought not to seem strange if, after much time spent in the study of theology, more come forth as philosophers, or as those who only know how to envy another's reputation, than as theologians, that is, as those wise in the mystery of Christ. XXV. Let us return to the work we have undertaken, so that what we further require in that study of the Scriptures which we commend may be added. First, therefore, he who intends to apply himself diligently to the sacred writings ought to hold firmly fixed in his mind that the most holy God is near to the one who reads and meditates in a peculiar manner, and, moved by the reverence due to the divine majesty and authority, he ought to conduct himself in that study with the utmost submission of soul, as befits the most abject sinner. For in the Holy Scriptures God Himself addresses the reader no less immediately than if He were using a voice sounding from heaven. He Himself is despised when fear and reverence do not occupy the hearts of readers. With him alone it pleases God to dwell, who trembles at His word. Light and desultory reading of the Scriptures is a pestilence to souls and opens a window to atheism. He who approaches the reading of the Scriptures ought to keep fixed in his memory, as if by a spike-nail — as they say — that most weighty apostolic warning found in (Hebrews 12:28, 29): "Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire." "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of this wisdom"; and unless this is present in the study of the word, it will be present nowhere. XXVI. Second, let the student seriously consider what is at stake for him in every truth with which he is occupied as it is to be drawn out from the mystery of the divine word, and by what means he may advance in the knowledge and worship of God. Let this always be the primary and chief end of all study and meditation in Holy Scripture: that we may learn our duty from them, that we may cultivate the most holy communion with God in them, that we may experience in the inmost senses of our souls the power and efficacy of the Spirit mightily exerting His grace and light in them, that we may know how our consciences stand in relation to the authority of God Himself and of Christ our Lord, which is preeminent in them — to the study of these things we must always draw near. He will await progress in vain — progress that is saving to himself or useful to the church — who, having despised this end of sacred meditation, has nothing else in mind than to furnish his intellect with the bare knowledge of truth. The word is the soul's nourishment. Now there are two things that are nourished and fostered by it: saving light,

namely, saving light, and the spiritual gifts added over and above it. The first is graciously granted to us that it may be saving to ourselves; the latter, that we ourselves may be saving to others. But he who in the study of the sacred writings does not aim first at the increase of the former will either produce no fruit of the latter, or will himself receive no fruit from their yield. XXVII. Third, the practical recognition of the plainly divine authority of Holy Scripture, and the religious subjection of conscience to it in all things, ought always to be present in its student. For the word of God, and that alone, immediately performs among us the office of God Himself. It therefore holds supreme dominion over us, to which we are bound to bring our minds and intellects into captivity. For we must present our consciences before it, as those who are about to receive from its sentence the judgment concerning ourselves and all those things that pertain to eternity.

XXVIII. Fourth, the study of the Scriptures in those languages in which they were written out by the Holy Spirit Himself will be of great assistance in the investigation of truth. For besides the fact that it is only from those sources that we can draw the true force and meaning of the words and phrases of the text, there is also a peculiar emphasis, and even a certain energy, in those languages — in Hebrew especially — which effectively insinuates the force and sense of the words into the mind, and which cannot be communicated through any other language. XXIX. Fifth, let all these things, and whatever other things of this kind there may be, be guided, bounded, and accompanied by constant and ardent prayers. This is the greatest means, appointed by God, of obtaining Him who is the author of all true wisdom, and that wisdom itself which we are seeking. We have taught above that the Holy Spirit is the author of this wisdom. He it is who alone searches out and reveals the deep things of God, which He both learns and teaches. He it is through whom the Son of God gives us understanding, that we may know Him who is true, and who makes known to us the things that are Christ's, and thereby leads into all truth. Our Lord Jesus teaches us that He is received through faith and obtained through prayers. God bestows upon us that Spirit of supplications, so that, instructed by His grace and aided by His power, we may ourselves seek the Spirit of direction and consolation. This our wisdom also is the gift of God. "If any of you lacks wisdom," says James, "let him ask of God, who gives generously" (James 1:5). Upon this, therefore, under God, all hope of making progress in theological study depends. Justin rightly says to Trypho: "Pray first of all that the gates of light may be opened to you; for these things are not perceived and understood by all, except by him to whom God and His Christ have granted understanding." And nearly divinely spoken is that saying of Plato in the Epinomis, addressed to the work of expounding the nature of God and theology: for when the Athenian Guest, commanded by Clinias and trusting in the benevolence of God and having prayed to Him, was about to set forth what was consistent with His nature, he adds: "These things will come to pass, if God Himself has guided us —"

if He alone has shown us the way as guide and auspice. Only add your prayers to mine."

XXX. Why do we marvel that so many fine intellects grow weary in the study and investigation of heavenly truth? They do not know how to pray. They have never received the Spirit of supplications; indeed — alas! — they very often scorn Him; yes, they mock Him with bitter jests, wickedly, blasphemously; and nowhere do they take more delight in themselves and before others than when they insult Him with sharp wit and lash Him with wanton jests. They are earthly men and savor nothing but earthly things; and while they despise all others and conduct themselves most magnificently, as if they alone were wise, in reality they sink below the lowest level of the common Christian people in the knowledge of the gospel.

XXXI. Moreover, the faithful soul, by the constant pouring out of those prayers which that Spirit suggests — whom God graciously bestows upon us to relieve our infirmities — obtains communion with God Himself in the greatest mysteries of the gospel, and is thereby increased daily in the knowledge of them through that exercise. For while the soul experiences in itself, through faith, the power and efficacy of saving doctrine, as far as it has advanced, being admitted gradually into all the secrets of the covenant of God made in Christ, it "grows up into Him who is the head — even the fullness of Him who fills all in all."

XXXII. To these studies let there be added a constant and devout fellowship with those who cultivate the practice of piety and the norm of evangelical theology in a holy manner. The antiquity of the Gentiles everywhere records that the greatest philosophers traveled through nearly the whole world in order to enjoy the counsel and companionship of those who had been initiated into the mysteries of that wisdom they were investigating. Yet we commonly despise those aids to this kind of wisdom that can be had at home. Some think no account at all should be taken of those in whom the power, the energy, and the life of the wisdom they seek effectively manifest themselves. Indeed — what madness is this — there are none with whom they disagree more with hostile hatred and envy than those who strive to express that wisdom and holiness of life through true piety, unfeigned faith, sincere evangelical obedience, and assiduous and spiritual worship of God. If anyone were to argue strenuously that the article contained in what they call the Apostles' Creed concerning the communion of saints ought to be removed from the things to be believed, a crowd of the studious would instantly fly at his eyes; while in the meantime they themselves either entirely ignore what that communion of saints is, or wickedly despise it.

XXXII. Moreover, that necessity entered into with the saints and the faithful will produce an assiduous exercise of those spiritual gifts in which this wisdom consists; and by that exercise, through the nature of the thing itself and the power of Christ's ordinance, they are increased.